Demonstrators, with the help of an activist group, delivered letters co-signed by 20,000 B.C. residents to the offices of prominent politicians, advocating for the protection of dwindling old growth forests.

Premier John Horgan’s office said he would decline to make comments at this time. Instead, the office released a statement through Minister Doug Donaldson of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development in British Columbia.

“This government appreciates the value of old growth forests for their biodiversity and is currently refining an old-growth strategy,” Donaldson said.

“Under the Vancouver Island Land Use Plan, over 13 per cent of Vancouver Island will never be logged, including 520,000 hectares of old growth forests,” he added.

“We are encouraged by recent statements by the B.C. government to develop a more robust old-growth strategy. The critical step for the government to demonstrate is to take this ecological emergency seriously,” said Jens Wieting, Sierra Club B.C.’s senior campaigner.

That would mean immediate interim steps for some of the last remaining intact areas in highly endangered old-growth forests across the province before losing options to protect more forests, Wieting noted.